Rebel in the Palace
by MadnessinmyMethod
Summary: Azula is just your average seven-year-old, sociopathicly violent Fire Nation Princess. So what if there's this cute new kid around? She doesn't care at all. AT ALL! Somewhat AUish for the sake of the circumstances. Jetzula. ON HAITUS.
1. Prologue

_**Rebel in the Palace**_

By MadnessinmyMethod

_**Prologue:**_ Twas a Dark and Stormy Night

Dark stormy nights have several qualities, several of which cause strange and miraculous things to happen which are thus noteworthy as far as stories and legends go. Azula, the young Fire Nation Princess who was well-read for her age, was fully aware of this rule of fiction. Her only flaw in reason was that this rule of fiction had to come from somewhere and, naturally, the best fiction comes from real life. Her flaw was quite simply that she had not yet made with dire connection.

So while a ferocious storm raged over the palace and she crept off to the kitchens with her older brother Zuko for a midnight snack (all the while taunting him each time he cringed at the crackle of lightning), Azula merely dismissed her excitement for something to happen as childish and highly unlikely.

"Hey, Elephant-Boar," Azula whispered at her brother who was not nearly as quiet in his slippered feet as she was, "you're going to wake someone up."

"Am not," Zuko argued.

"Actually, you did," an older voice said. It was their cousin, Lu Ten. He was about a half a decade older than Zuko, so while they were at the tender age of eight and seven (an age at which every birthday was a big deal because they were that much closer to being adults), Lu Ten was thirteen. There were many words and ways to describe Lu Ten, but the simplest and most of effective way was this: He was "cool." He played with them and taught them things all the time, but he was also older, beginning to look at some of the girls who came to the palace, and various other things that were constantly on the mind of an average thirteen-year-old boy.

"Ha ha," Azula teased her brother.

"Though I'm afraid it was your voice that convinced me to look out into the hall and see what was going on," Lu Ten added.

"Hah!" Zuko said.

Azula made a face and the subject was dropped.

"What are you two doing up so late?" Lu Ten asked.

"…Cookies," Zuko said.

"Ah. Yes, I've always found that cookies are best at midnight during a thunderstorm," Lu Ten said seriously. "Carry on then, but do be quieter or you really will wake someone up."

Zuko and Azula grinned and continued down the hallway towards the kitchens. Lit torches framed the door, beckoning like the light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel. The firelight glistened in their golden eyes. They were so close. Azula stretched out a pale hand, ignoring Zuko's alongside her. She would open the door. She would achieve the glory of midnight cookies. It would all be hers!

Azula smacked Zuko's hand out of the way leaving him to clutch it in the mild pain caused by her very sharp fingernails as her hand closed over the knob. "Victory is mine," she whispered. The door swung open, letting only the barest amount of light from the hallway inside and even that was soon shut out with the door. Azula, however, was already a firebending prodigy, having started her lessons when she was six and quickly reaching the same level as Zuko, ready to surpass him at any given moment. She lit a small fire in her palm.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, seeing Zuko leaning against the door.

"…I followed you, stupid," he said. "You only knocked my hand out of the way. Which was really _stupid_ by the way. Someone could have heard."

Azula rolled her eyes. "Fine, but just so we're perfectly clear, you're far stupider than anyone I have ever met."

"Why you—"

"Hey, could you two keep it down? I'm trying to sleep over here."

Azula and Zuko froze. Could it be that ghosts, perhaps victims of the war they heard so much about, were haunting their kitchen? All the ghost stories Lu Ten had ever told them about evil swamp witches and ghouls ran through their minds as they paled and their heart beats quickened.

"Who's there?" Azula said, angry that she sounded a bit frightened, especially in front of Zuko. He would never let her live it down if they actually survived. She certainly planned to, but perhaps she could offer her brother as a sacrifice.

"Me," the mysterious voice replied.

Hearing it for the second time, Azula concluded that this was not the aged voice of your standard vengeful ghost. It sounded much younger, maybe even close to her own age. She briefly wondered if ghosts had ages.

"And you are?" Azula asked.

"Jet."

"That's a strange name. What are you doing in our kitchen?"

"The cook… what was his name… ahg, I forget. He let me in though 'cause I was hungry. He said I could stay here for the night if I didn't cause any trouble… or maybe it was mischief… mayhem? I dunno."

Azula planned her words carefully, ignoring her shaking brother. "Hmm… so, Jet, was it? Would you mind stepping into the light so we can see you?"

A young boy around her age emerged from the shadows. His skin was a dark tanned color the likes of which Azula had never seen throughout the seven years of her sheltered, aristocratic life. He was dressed in ratty clothing, another thing Azula had never witnessed. And yet despite his obvious poverty, he looked very happy. He grinned from ear to ear, dazzling her with his shinning white teeth.

"Well then," Azula said, satisfied that it was only a little boy and not a murderous ghost, "we'll just get our cookies and be on our way."

"So you wake me up, question me, and you're not even going to tell me your names?" Jet protested.

Azula turned around and looked him in the eye, shocked at his gall. Clearly he had no idea who she was at all. "I am Princess Azula, Daughter of Prince Ozai and Princess Ursa, Granddaughter of Fire Lord Sozin. This is my elder brother Zuko. We will not be spoken to in such a way."

Jet looked at her with astonishment, not for all her titles as she assumed, but for her cold reprimand.

"That was a bit mean, Azula," Zuko said, finally speaking, now that he had gotten over his ghost trauma.

"Can it, Zuzu."

"Ha ha, Zuzu," Jet said.

"Oh, don't you start," Zuko said. "I want my cookie and I'm out of here. You can have fun with your new _boyfriend_, Azula."

Zuko stormed out, probably waking up the entire palace with all his noise. Azula wasn't afraid that he would rat her out though. He knew the consequences. He wouldn't dare. "He is not my boyfriend," she snarled at the closed door.

"Whatever," Jet said, shrugging. "I'd just like to sleep if you don't mind."

"I don't care what you do," Azula said. She was beginning to wonder if maybe the entire night had been part of one huge dream. Normally someone had managed to catch her when she went looking for cookies and other sugary snacks in the middle of the night, usually her mother or uncle. The fact that Zuko had also managed to make it to the kitchen with her without them being caught as a result of his inability to be stealthy lent further evidence to the entire night having been a dream. She was also sure that, though their cook had a regrettably generous nature when it came to little children, he would never actually allow this impoverished peasant child to spend the night in the royal kitchens. It was unspeakable. It could only possibly happen in a dream. It was the only logical explanation and Azula trusted logic so implicitly.

And so, convinced that nothing of this strange and curious nature had actually happened in the realm of reality, Azula left the kitchen and returned to her room, where she slept quite soundly and peacefully as a Fire Nation Princess ought to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Azula had completely forgotten about her nighttime wanderings which she had dismissed as a dream, until as she was playing outside with her two best friends, Mai and Ty Lee, her cousin Lu Ten approached her. He smiled one of his charming smiles that made Ty Lee act like even more a bumbling airhead than usual and asked Azula, "How were the cookies last night?"

This question forced Azula to realize that the cookies, the nighttime excursion, and that strange boy in the kitchen had been completely, utterly, one-hundred percent real. Azula smiled back at her cousin. "They were excellent. Thanks for not tattling on us."

Lu Ten laughed. "It's part of the palace experience. I still go out for a midnight snack every now and again. Don't tell anyone," he added, pressing a finger to his lips. He winked and departed, claiming that his father wanted him to practice firebending that morning.

Azula turned to her friends. "The strangest thing happened when Zuko and I got into the kitchen last night."

"Really, Azula?" Ty Lee asked, prepared to hear something amazing, like Azula discovering the cure for some horrible disease while she was getting her cookies.

Azula rolled her eyes at Ty Lee's enthusiasm. "When we got into the kitchen, Zuko and I were arguing about him being stupid, and then we heard this voice telling us to be quiet so he could sleep. Turns out, there's some weird peasant boy sleeping in the kitchen because the cook felt bad for him and let him in."

"Is he cute?" Ty Lee asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Mai interrupted.

"EVERYTHING!" Ty Lee screamed. "Azula could have found her SOUL mate."

"Oh, please. Like my soul mate would be some poor boy dressed in rags and sleeping in my kitchen," Azula scoffed.

"But it's _so_ romantic," Ty Lee squealed.

"It's pathetic is what it is," Azula said severely.

"Don't waste your breath," Mai told Ty Lee glumly. "Azula has to marry someone better than that anyway, right Azula?"

"Exactly. My Prince is going to be handsome, strong, intelligent, and rich of course."

"You sure aren't asking for much," Mai said.

"I'm a princess," Azula replied. "I can have whatever, and that means whoever, I want."

"Hey, look, Mai," Ty Lee said, pointing to one of the roofed paths that surrounded the courtyard and led into various parts of the palace. "Zuko's out."

Mai blushed and looked away.

**

* * *

**Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee had continued playing for several hours, the discussion of mystery soul mates lurking in the palace kitchen where cookies were aplenty completely forgotten as they carried on as they always did. Azula teased Zuko. Ty Lee fawned over Lu Ten. Mai pretended not to care. Jet was the last thing on their minds, that is, until they saw him.

The courtyard in which they played had a small, quaint pond that was kept stocked with the finest koi fish in the entire Fire Nation and a tiny family of turtle ducks which feared Azula already. During the midst of an avid turtle duck hunt conducted by Azula and complied to by Mai and Ty Lee albeit somewhat reluctantly, a male youth emerged from the palace and took a running leap into the pond, splashing the three girls with water so that they were completely soaked.

"How dare you get me wet? Do you know who I am?" Azula shrieked before she had identified the culprit.

"Oh, hey there, 'Zula," Jet replied, grinning at her toothily.

Azula was temporarily at a loss for words. "You—that's _Princess_ _Azula_ to you. And how did you get in here?"

"Oh, Azula, I see you've met Jet already." Azula's mother came striding into the courtyard with an amused smile on her face.

"Mom, what's going on?" Azula demanded a little bit rudely.

"Oh, well you see, I found Jet in the kitchens this morning and I persuaded Fire Lord Azulon to let him stay here for awhile until we figure out where he belongs. So you and Zuko will have a new playmate. Isn't that wonderful?" Ursa asked her daughter.

"Perfect," Azula lied.

"How did you get all wet, Azula?"

* * *

**Author's Note: **So, this is my final tribute to Jet and Azula now that the series is over. After this I don't plan to write any more Avatar fanfiction. I've been pulled into other fandoms. It's taken me quite awhile to figure this story out. This Prologue itself has been in the making for a long while, and recently I finally got inspired to work on this a bit more. So, I apologize in advance for what will probably be very sporadic irregular updating. It's my senior year so I've got a lot to do, but I'll try to keep this thing going now that I've got the Prologue posted. Anywho, I hope you found the beginning interesting. I'll try to post at least every two weeks. Review if you want. I am a review-whore, so you know what I want, but I don't hold it against you if you don't review (otherwise I'd be a hypocrite most of the time). Thanks for reading, and I'll just shut up now. _Madness


	2. Fear

_**Chapter One:**_ Fear

Ty Lee was the type of girl who adored any attention she received. Part of the reason she came to the palace every day was to get away from her identical sisters. At home, she was never looked at. No one cared what she thought. Getting the attention of everyone at the palace simply because she was Azula's friend was the best thing that had ever happened to her, because at home, surrounded by all those people, she was lonely.

Early on in her life, Ty Lee had also learned that she got more attention when she tried to be pretty and this attention came from the boys. When she was very little and boys thought that the best way to get a girl's attention was to throw a book at her, it hadn't been at all worth the effort, but as she grew older and the boys started to get a little more sense in their thick heads, Ty Lee started to take a little more pride in her appearance. She was careful not to look too good, or she would face the horrible jealousy of Azula. If Azula wasn't happy, Ty Lee could never come back to the palace and then she would be back to square one. She would have lost everything she had fought for.

Still, Ty Lee adored the boys in the palace. When Zuko was younger he tended to have more friends around, but that chance seemed less and less as Zuko started to get sullen and distant in his prepubescent drama. Ty Lee couldn't honestly admit that she thought Azula was entirely blameless in the whole affair.

But when the prospect of Jet living at the palace arrived in her lap, Ty Lee was overjoyed. There were so few cute boys around to tease and taunt. Mai had exclusive rights to Zuko and Ty Lee naturally went after the strapping Lu Ten, but she could not kid herself into believing the kind older boy would ever be interested in her. There was of course the potential of fighting with Azula over Jet, but then again Azula had insisted that she was better than the peasant boy, so as far as Ty Lee knew, her path was clear…

"Why are we sitting around this block of wood?" Azula asked, inspecting her fingernails.

"It's not a block of wood," Ty Lee said seriously. "It's a Ouija Board. We're going to use it to channel spirits from the undead and they'll tell us our future."

"That sounds ridiculous," Azula said. "I already know that I am going to be a ridiculously famous Fire Nation leader, who shall be revered and lauded for centuries after my death." Nonetheless, Mai actually looked interested in Ty Lee's gimmicky behavior for once, so Azula made one of the few compromises she would ever willingly make in her life.

Ty Lee had set up the atmosphere perfectly according to everything she had heard from one of her older cousins about Ouija Boards. They were huddled in a dark room. The curtains were drawn tightly shut and candles had been placed at strategic locations. Ty Lee wasn't sure how the symbol fit into the ritual exactly, but she had also "borrowed" a necklace from her cousin that had a pendent shaped like a pentagram.

"So how does it work?" Azula asked.

Surprisingly Mai supplied the information. "We hold a séance to call the spirits back to the mortal world."

"Exactly," Ty Lee said perkily. "So everybody close your eyes. Breathe deeply and focus your energies on the spirit world. We'll know that a spirit has returned if the room gets colder and then we can start asking questions."

Azula closed her eyes obligingly and tried to think deeply about ghosts. Frankly the idea didn't excite her. There was no Zuko around to offer up as a sacrifice should the spirit prove to be unfriendly. Azula thought about interrupting their focused thoughts to point that fact out, but then not only would it show that she was afraid, but it would also require the three of them to go on a hunt for Zuko. When they finally did acquire her older brother, Mai would become horribly distracted and then of course they would not be able to call up any spirits at all! Though Azula was loathe to admit it, she did in fact have a few burning questions to ask.

She was just beginning to wonder whether the whole charade was actually even going to work when Ty Lee began to proclaim that the room had indeed gotten chillier.

"But do you think it's cold enough to really be a spirit," the chatty girl was asking Mai.

"I don't know," Mai replied contemplatively.

"I really think—" Azula began, but her thought was cut off by the sound of something sinister moaning, perhaps in pain. And though the idea of someone (maybe Zuko?) in pain was interesting to Azula, she was admittedly rather frightened.

"Oooooooooooooooooooohhhhh."

"Oh, powerful spirit," Ty Lee declared theatrically without missing a beat, "tell us your name!"

"Nuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnyaaaaaa!" the spirit wailed.

"Nunya who?"

"Nunya business!" Uproarious laughter filled the room and Azula growled in fury. They had been played for fools.

"Who's there?" she snarled. "And I swear, if you don't come out I'll set the entire palace ablaze to find you!"

It was then that Jet came tumbling out from behind the curtains, rolling on the floor with laughter. "Should of seen your face, 'Zula," he was saying between gasps.

Azula didn't see anything funny and quickly told him so, but grabbing him by the collar and shoving him against the wall. "You think that was funny, do you? I'll show you funny."

"Oh come on, Azula," Ty Lee interrupted. "He didn't mean any harm."

Azula turned to glare at Ty Lee. "Didn't mean any harm? He made us look like fools, Ty Lee. Or are you too distracted by boys to respect yourself?"

Ty Lee flushed a deep purple. "No, that's not what I m—"

But Azula didn't stay to hear the rest of Ty Lee's protest, she had already dropped Jet and stormed out of the room.

"What the hell was that about?" Jet asked after some time had passed in silence.

Ty Lee shrugged, not knowing what to say. "She's jealous," Mai said softly.

"Of what?" Jet asked.

Mai shook her head sadly. "Come on, Ty Lee. We better find Azula before she really does decide to set the entire palace ablaze."

"Jealous of what?" Jet repeated as the door closed behind them. "Oh, I don't get it."

* * *

"Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and broke his head, then he lay dying on the floor and cold and brutal death because nobody loved him."

"That's not how the song goes," Zuko told his sister indignantly.

"Don't care," she replied and continued walking precariously along the stone wall that rimmed one of the numerous gardens in the palace.

"Fine. I bet you're going to fall and break your head," Zuko said with as much surliness as he could muster.

"I love you too, Zuzu."

"Don't call me that!"

"But you love that name, Zuzu," Azula protested.

Their argument was interrupted by the arrival of her friends, Mai and Ty Lee, who had just spent several hours searching for her in vain and were quite out of breath.

"There you are, Azula," Ty Lee gasped. Mai had become quite silent in the presence of Zuko.

Azula sighed. "Zuko, go away."

"What? Why?"

"I said go away."

Her brother glared at her, but considering that he didn't really care whatever girly things his sister and her friends were about to discuss, he complied, but not without grumbling about how mean Azula was.

Azula sat down on the stone wall and looked at Mai and Ty Lee expectantly. "Well?"

"We told Jet off and Ty Lee hit him," Mai lied, knowing it would make Azula feel better and she would never know anyway. Azula nodded approvingly.

"That's good. He deserves it. Though, I think to be fair that we ought to return the favor. That's twice now that he's caught me off guard. We cannot continue to let this happen. Right, Ty Lee?" Azula added pointedly.

"Of course, Azula," Ty Lee replied, knowing that Jet was officially off limits, no matter what Azula might say otherwise.

"I've been thinking about this for some time," Azula continued. "Here's the plan…"

* * *

Jet had been given a room that had accommodations that were certainly far nicer than the kitchen, though for him, the kitchens were nothing to sneeze at. He could handle all manner of beast about him and had on a number of occasions slept in a barn full of rats and mice or out in the wilderness with many creatures he could not even name. There was however a member of the animal kingdom, he simply could not abide: the prickle snake.

Prince Zuko, with whom Jet had struck up a casual friendship was, of course, immediately made aware of all of Jet's likes and dislikes (and Jet made aware of Zuko's) including his irrational fear of the prickle snake. Unbeknownst to Jet, Zuko had unfortunately mentioned this little fact to his sister in passing and Azula, of course, remembered.

It had taken some complex maneuvering around her mother mostly, but Azula had at last managed to get one of the servants to acquire a prickle snake for her. She kept it hidden under her bed in a glass jar and waited until late in the afternoon, when all the adults were at various political meetings Azula wasn't allowed to attend yet and Zuko and Jet were happily playing tag in the gardens with Lu Ten and some of his friends.

Azula, with Mai and Ty Lee trailing stealthily behind her, ran quickly to the princess's chamber and crawled under her bed to retrieve the jar. Azula watched the coiling snake with fascination for a moment before looking up. "Alright, to Jet's room!"

Ten minutes later, all of them giggling with wild abandon, they shut the door to Jet's room and ran down the hall looking for a place to dispose the incriminating glass jar. A bush served the purpose and they quickly fled the scene of the crime, all too eager for the oncoming night.

* * *

Azula was too excited to sleep and it was not long after she went to bed that her patience was rewarded with the sounds of a young boy screaming with pure terror. She sighed and leaned back into her pillows. "Chalk one up for _Princess_ Azula!"

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey Everyone! I'm so glad you guys put up with me for a month and decided to come back. It's been very difficult for me to get inspired about Avatar now that the series is over and I've become addicted to various animes and mangas (SkipBeat! and Fairy Tail, yeah!). So updating is going to be quite unfortunately slow because I'm working on a lot of different writing pieces and I've got a lot of responsibilties as President of my school's Latin Club (yeah, I know, you don't care... :( ) Anway, so that's the reason for my silence. I'm going to try to stay motivated and work on the next chapter. The gang's headed to Ember Island. Please review because reviews are like crack for me only not quite so dangerous. Valete, readers!**


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